Freelance Finance

Another remarkable freelance friend—a brilliant writer and researcher—has, just yesterday, taken a full-time job. This comes after years of very successful, but tiring, work on her own. She will be performing the exact same kind of duties, except she will be performing them for a law firm. I am happy for her. Why? Because she […]

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Mire and I used to sweat out the tax season, living in fear that our accountant’s verdict would throw us in debt for years to come. But we don’t fear tax season anymore. Why? Because we’ve starting doing something many freelancers don’t, namely, save to pay our taxes. While not as glamorous as saving for […]

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The newly self-employed often don’t realize that they must pay their own taxes—in the form of “estimated” taxes—because they don’t have an employer who automatically deducts taxes from each paycheck for them. How to do it simply: Find an accountant who handles self-employed people, and have him or her figure out what percentage you need […]

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Deciding how long you should keep your old tax documents and financial records is hard enough without getting bogged down in busy work. It’s entirely possible these days to scan and create a digital record of every single piece of paper you accumulate. But you’ll never find me doing it. That may sound weird after […]

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I have been reviewing how I organize and store financial records I accumulate in my twin roles as human being and freelancer. Both David Bach, author of the Finish Rich series and David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, promote systems for filing away paper in such a way that you can actually find it […]

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Here’s an item to be filed under the heading, “too little, too late”:
The lame duck calls a quackin’ from Washington D.C. about an economic stimulus package.
For the good of the American people.
For the hard-working taxpayers.
Riiiight.

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It’s the beginning of tax season, so we’re starting to receive 1099s from clients from whom we did work this year. And a lot of these seem to be going to the wrong address. It drives me crazy. This happens every year. Every year. No matter how often you tell a client what your current […]

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When I first went freelance, I took the advice of a friend who had been doing this longer than I had. As each check came in, she socked away a third (roughly 30 percent) in a separate account intended for taxes. Each quarter, when she needed to pay her estimated taxes, she dipped into the […]

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